"Shit Happens" campaign.
‘Shit happens’ is the title of this website. What are they selling? Toilet paper that can also be used to clean your face? Nope, not even close. This ad, made by Doom & Dickson for ‘Consumer & Safety’, tries to explain the danger of playing with fireworks; before you know, it explodes in your face, the doctor replaces your mouth with your own (tiny) ass, and then – of course – your speech sounds like farting. To make the campaign viral, the site has a tool to upload your friends’ photos and give them the same ‘make-over’. It made us laugh. The campaign will easily win the craziest ad of the year, but we strongly doubt the effectiveness. Of course this kind of humor suits the purpose of creating a viral effect and will thus generate a fair amount of exposure. We fear though that the tits-and-bums humor suffocates the message that fireworks are dangerous. In previous campaigns, for example, real victoms were used with mutulated arms, missing fingers, etc, which clearly showed the gravity of the subject. The only lesson to be learned by the target (male adolescents) here, is that it’s fun to make your friend’s face look like an arse. William Bernbach – founder of DDB – already taught us very wisely that in advertising “humor should never be used to make a joke, only to make a point”.
Source: amsterdamadblog